Jerrod Niemann has released the album artwork for his new album, Free The Music, due out October 2. The cover was revealed by USA Today. “This album is my interpretation of how I feel about country right now,” Jerrod said.

Not only did Jerrod co-write and co-produce the record, he also came up with the idea for the cover design, which shows Jerrod opening a set of doors, an act he says symbolizes letting the music out and inviting music lovers in.

“We’ve done our best to try and make room for everyone,” he said. The cover also features photographs of many of the instruments used when recording the project. His vision for the album was to mix the old with the new.

“The pedal steel guitar has come to define country music, but there were years and years of country being made before that instrument was even invented,” he said. “Horns have been in country going back to the 1920s, and fiddles and other string instruments date back even further. I took all those things and put them on Free The Music.

“I made this record in an effort to try and mix 1927 with 2027, but I didn’t want to disregard 100 years of what people have already done musically,” he continued. “Instead, I wanted to take that and do it in a way that is also representative of the future.”